Heading Error Removal System for Tracking Devices

United States Patent Application

Systems are able to reduce or remove slowly-varying drift errors, such as heading errors and rate of rotation errors, to correct the measurements from tracking devices. The systems may be used to remove the slow varying drift errors for gyroscopic tracking device sensors, or other types of sensors used for determining heading, rates of rotation, or position. The systems may be employed in personal dead reckoning systems, or other personnel tracking device, as well as in vehicle tracking devices. The system uses heuristic assumptions to correct for these drift errors, via a feedback loop control having an accumulator responsive to changes in output signals. The accumulator is able to produce a signal that over time compensates for the inherent drift errors on those output signals. In some examples, that feedback loop control can be adjusted to compensate from deviations from those heuristic assumptions, such as swaying, curving, or turning.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[0001] This invention was made with government support under Contract No. No. DE FG52 2004NA25587 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The government has certain rights in the invention.